The Sunday Haul (on 11-10-2026)

 

More than forty years ago I had read 'The Indian Epics Retold' by R.K. Narayan that was on a shelf at home. Now I do not remember anything I had read in it but since a long time I had searched for a copy for myself. Finally, last Sunday I found a wonderful copy that had the Ramayana, Mahabharata and also had another book 'Gods, Demons, and Others' in it. It was an almost new copy but I got it for just two hundred rupees. 

'Things Fall Apart' by Chinua Achebe is one book that shook me, and also made want to read more of books by African writers. Luckily I found many titles by Ngugi, and others besides almost all Achebe titles. So far I have found about half a dozen copies of Achebe's best book- 'Things Fall Apart' that I have given to friends and others. Last Sunday at Abids I found another copy in wonderful condition that I got cheap at just eighty rupees. 

The day before, on Saturday, on an impulse I decided to check at a seller who has a couple of shelves on the pavement in Gandhinagar. I was pleasantly shocked to find a copy of 'Marilyn' by Norman Mailer that I had read somewhere was difficult to find. But this copy seemed a recent one, and I was glad I found it, and also got it pretty cheap at just a hundred and fifty rupees. 

The Sunday Haul (on 04-10-2026)

 

Sometime in May this year I had found a copy of 'The Dismantling of India' by TJS George on a WhatsApp group of a second-hand bookseller. I've read some column 'Point of View' of TJS George here and there, and found them to be sharp and biting, mostly about politics and politicians. But I haven't found his columns all at one place. 

TJS George passed away last October, and in the obituary I read that is column had run uninterrupted for twenty-five years in The New Indian Express but I did not know there was a book about some of his columns. Last Sunday at Abids I was lucky and found a copy of 'The First Refuge of Scoundrels: Politics in Modern India' by TJS George, a collection of several of his columns neatly arranged under eight sections. I got this hardcover copy for eighty rupees, and I plan to read one column a day regularly till I finish the book. 

The Sunday Haul (27-09-2026)

 

On some Sundays I wish I wouldn't find anything good at Abids because I'm buying so many books that it is causing anxiety in me. During the week the two books I had found online were delivered. They were huge tomes and I wonder when I will find the time to read them. So I did not look forward to find any good title at Abids last Sunday. But I found only one title at the last minute. 

'The Contenders: Who Will Lead India Tomorrow?' by Priya Sahgal is a book of profiles of young (and some old) politicians in India who are expected to, one day, lead the country. Some of those politicians featured include Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Kumar Yadav, Asadudding Owaisi, and others.